Humanverse

Orba vs Orbie

American parents have registered 660 Orbies since 1880, against 85 Orbas. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Orba against Orbie, 1880 to 2025 0 10 20 30 40 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Orba Orbie

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 56 years in which either name was published, Orbie for 54 years and Orba for 2 years. The lead changed hands 3 times.

Side by side

  Orba Orbie
Total US births 85660
Most in one year 833
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 1130
Median age today 9477
Peak year 19121916
Best rank 1,885th boys1,265th boys
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 18931902
Girls / boys 41 / 4451 / 609

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Orbas alive today are over 94; half the Orbies are over 77. That is 17 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Orba and Orbie.